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Saturday, March 03, 2012

Davy Jones, The Monkees, and Nostalgia

Sad news this week of the death of Davy Jones of The Monkees. I can't say I was a fan of his after his Monkees days, but he, Mike, Mickey, and Peter were very much part of my growing up in the late 1960s. The Monkees TV show (1965-1968) was a must for the O'Loughlins to watch every week - we never missed an episode and laughed at every corny joke and stupid play-acting that the boys got up to. Because of their TV show, I was more aware of The Monkees than The Beatles. I didn't have a favourite (only girls did that!), but Davy was often the funniest. At that time I didn't know the difference between Americans, English, and Irish - so I didn't notice that he was the "English guy". I searched YouTube for a good quality video of The Monkees TV Show theme, but this was the best I could get:

At only 66 years of age, he died before his time. I watched a biography about him on the Biography Channel (made in 2008) last evening. At the end of the programme he says "You're going to have to give me a shot to put me away, I'm going to be bothering you all for a long time yet" Sadly, this is not to be.

Ten seconds into the above video is the scene where The Monkees run towards the sea, but turn around when they reach the water. I, and am sure millions of other kids at the time, used to do this at the beach just like The Monkees. Great fun!